The Alphabet Workers Union, which aims to represent workers at Google, introduced a petition addressed to Google executives calling on the company to immediately pay back all temps, vendors and contractors — referred to as TVCs — who have allegedly been underpaid by Google. It also called for creating an immediate path to permanent employment for temporary workers.

The petition is addressed to Adrienne Crowther, Deepak Negi, Kent Walker, Ruth Porat and Sundar Pichai. It currently has over 600 signers including representatives from a number of staffing firms and MSP’s; Adecco, Artech, Collaberra, Harvey Nash, Modis, Nelson Staffing and PRO Unlimited

It follows a report published Friday in The Guardian and The New York Times that alleged Google has been illegally underpaying thousands of temporary workers in dozens of countries and delayed correcting the pay rates for more than two years as it attempted to cover up the problem.

The publications — following a review of internal Google documents and emails —alleged that Google executives have been aware since at least May 2019 that the company was failing to comply with local laws in the UK, Europe and Asia that mandate temporary workers be paid equal rates to full-time employees performing similar work.

“We believe that all workers at Google should receive the full wages they are legally entitled to and have earned,” the petition states. “We demand that Google immediately pay back all temps, vendors and contractors who have been knowingly underpaid by Google.”

The petition also states that Google segregates its workers into a “two-tiered workforce” that provides full-time employees high pay, excellent benefits and frequent morale-boosting mixers, presenting itself as a benevolent company. The second tier of 130,000 TVCs are underpaid, frequently only offered unaffordable healthcare by contracting companies, barred from Google-sponsored events and can even be fired for publicly claiming that they work for Google, the petition said.

“Recognizing Google’s legal obligation to fairly compensate workers for their labor, we request that you immediately pay back all temps, vendors and contractors who have been knowingly underpaid by Google,” the petition stated. “We demand that Google create an immediate path to permanent employment for temporary workers and end its two-tiered perma-temp system.”

The pay parity issue is just the latest labor dispute to roil Google’s activist employee base, The Guardian reported Wednesday. In recent years, employees at the company have organized and protested over its handling of sexual harassment cases, its plans for a censored search engine for China, its contract with the US department of defense to provide technology for drones, its treatment of TVCs, and allegations that it retaliated against worker activists.